The Compass for Your Week: A 15-Minute Review
Mindless scrolling thrives in a vacuum of intention. When you don’t have a clear idea of what’s important, your brain defaults to what’s easy and stimulating. Social media feeds are the ultimate form of easy stimulation. The antidote is to have a strong sense of purpose for your time. This is where the 15-Minute Weekly Review comes in.
This isn’t another boring meeting with yourself. It’s a high-leverage strategic check-in. It’s your personal board meeting where you, the CEO of your life, decide on the priorities for the upcoming week. When you know that your most important task on Tuesday morning is to finish the draft of a major proposal, the allure of scrolling through celebrity gossip dramatically fades.
Set aside a recurring 15-minute appointment in your calendar. Friday afternoon or Sunday evening works well for most people. Protect this time like it’s a meeting with your most important client. During this session, you ask yourself three simple questions:
1. What went well last week? This is crucial. Acknowledge your wins, no matter how small. It builds momentum and combats the negativity bias that can make you feel like you’re not making progress. Did you stick to your morning routine three times? Great. Did you finish a difficult task? Acknowledge it.
2. What could have gone better? This isn’t about self-criticism. It’s about honest assessment. Where did you get derailed? Did an unexpected meeting throw off your whole day? Did you lose two hours to a YouTube rabbit hole? Notice the patterns without judgment. This is just data collection.
3. What are my 1-3 priorities for next week? This is the most important step. Based on your reflections, define the one to three most critical outcomes for the coming week. Not a list of 20 tasks. Just the big-ticket items that will move the needle. This is your compass. We call this a simplified 1-3-5 rule in practice: for any given week, you might have 1 major outcome, 3 medium-sized projects that support it, and 5 smaller tasks each day. But for the weekly review, just focus on the big 1-3 priorities.
Once you have these priorities, schedule them directly into your calendar. Block out time for them. This practice, known as timeboxing, turns a vague intention (“I should work on the report”) into a concrete commitment (“Tuesday, 9 AM – 11 AM: Draft report introduction”). Your week is no longer a vast, empty space that can be filled with mindless scrolling. It’s a structured plan oriented around what truly matters to you.
